Nursery World - Local authorities with declining childcare places will be 'hit hardest' by proposed funding changes

Proposed changes to early years funding in England are likely to hit local authorities already struggling with declining childcare places – largely in northern England –suggests new research.

New analysis by the Early Years Alliance suggests local authorities with falling childcare places will see the smallest increases to funding under proposed changes to the formula, PHOTO Adobe Stock

The findings are according to new analysis by the Early Years Alliance (EYA) into the impact of planned changes to the early years funding formula, currently being consulted on, whereby the more expensive it is for childcare settings to operate, the more funding local authorities in England will receive.

The Department for Education (DfE) is also looking at setting new fixed minimum and maximum increases to funding rates between 2022/23 and 2023/24 – what it calls ‘year-to-year protections’. The EYA says that these ‘protections’ would see rates for some councils rise by just 1 per cent for deprived two-year-olds and three and four-year-olds.

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